School Time Snacks

K starts kindergarten in five days. Eek! Each day, she is responsible for bringing a water bottle and healthy snack to keep her little brain sharp and focused. Being the planner that I am, I thought we might take some time this week and prepare some healthy munchies in advance to take some of the stress out of our school week. If I have something ready to throw in her backpack, I am much less likely to reach for prepackaged options that a) cost more, b)are full of unidentifiable chemicals and preservatives, and c)won't give K the energy she needs to be the best kindergartner she can be!


Here's what we're making for K's snack time arsenal:

• Trail Mix a la K-I let her go crazy at the bulk bins. Her special mix has almonds, cashews, sunflower seeds, dried cherries and mini whole wheat pretzels.
• Fruit Leather-She wanted strawberries because she likes them. I wanted peaches because they were on sale. We made both!
• Whole Wheat Banana Mini Muffins-Easy to freeze and always yummy!

I've also whipped out a reusable snack bag using the tutorial found here. This isn't the fanciest tutorial out there, and will only work for "dry snacks" since it's all cotton. But, it will certainly get the job done and save me about a million plastic sandwich bags. I'm hoping no one looks too closely at my first attempt. It was my first go round with velcro...we aren't on speaking terms right now. I added a ribbon on top for prettiness but the stitches went right through my velcro on the other side. Who really looks at the inside of a reusable snack bag anyway, right? My next one will be better and trust me, there will be more!

What are some easy, healthy, packable snacks that you and your family love? I need more ideas...hit me up in the comments!